Event Producer, Moderator and Host - Radio, Film, TV

I am an experienced and passionate event producer and facilitator of public conversations. My approach blends preparation with presence. I believe that conversation is an art form that should be nurtured with care and attention.

Below is a series of conversations I have produced and moderated with artists, filmmakers, and multimedia creators both in-person and online.

I am currently available for hire for freelance event production and moderation (open to in-person and virtual; experienced in both). Send me an email at inakazawa@gmail.com to inquire about rates.

Podcast Host for Stars and Stars with Isa | SiriusXM & Futuro Media

I am currently hosting a weekly podcast, Stars and Stars with Isa, a collaboration between SiriusXM and Futuro Media. Have you ever wondered what the zodiac can reveal about your favorite artists? Then you have to listen to Stars and Stars with Isa, the podcast where we look to the stars above with the stars below. Every episode our charismatic, funny and insightful host and astrologer, Isa Nakazawa, sits down with the most talented artists and thinkers of our time to read them their birth chart. In the show, Isa delves into what the planets reveal about the star’s life purpose and why they love, create, and walk the world the way they do. You’ll laugh, you might cry and you’ll definitely connect with your favorites. You’ll even learn a little about yourself.

Transmission Studio: SF Commons x BAVC Media Series | Summer 2023

I am currently hosting a fresh new series every 2nd and 4th Thursday on SFC.TV. Transmission Studio is a series of candid conversations with independent artists and organizations thriving in the dynamic, ever-evolving ecosystem of San Francisco. It aspires to inform, inspire and more importantly spark meaningful and critical dialogue on the state of the artists who remain committed to this city in spite of unprecedented social, economic and political challenges.

In the debut episode, I talk to Steve Polta of SF Cinematheque and Oakland-based filmmaker Zack Parrinella about the CROSSROADS Film Festival. We discuss everything from the current state of the Bay Area experimental film scene to the imperative of supporting local venues that understand the art and magic of in-person screenings.

CAAMFest Spring 2023: I CAN'T KEEP QUIET | Screening + Panel

I had the pleasure of moderating a post-screening conversation at CAAMFest 2023 at SFMoma’s intimate Phyllis Wattis Theater in downtown San Francisco with the powerhouse team behind the compelling documentary film “I Can’t Keep Quiet”. We discussed everything from MILCK’s lived experience navigating the complexity of fame to her journey of finding and losing her voice, again and again, to the ethics of editing decisions in documentary filmmaking as the primary subject. The conversation was followed by an audience Q&A and a special live performance by MILCK. I’m grateful to the team at CAAM for trusting me with moderating this panel of stars!

Film:
I Can’t Keep Quiet (USA, 2023, 27 min) Directed by Eurie Chung

An intimate portrait of one woman’s quest for healing that reverberated around the globe through her song “Quiet,” an anthem for the women’s movement. Five years later, we take a deeper look into the song’s impact on MILCK’s journey of reclamation: reclaiming trust in herself, her sense of belonging, and her sisterhood with the song’s co-creator, AG. As we follow MILCK’s path of activism and artistry, we get a window into how she’s awakened by the stillness of quarantine and the reckoning of our country’s racial justice movement. Her acknowledgement and accountability for her blindspots give her and AG a renewed sense of freedom as they celebrate that it’s never too late to reclaim our voices.

Arts for a Better Bay Area (ABBA) State of the Arts Summit | Summer 2023

I recently worked with George Koster of “Voices of the Community” to interview esteemed guests and notable San Francisco arts leaders including Maria Jenson, Ralph Remington and Jonathan Moscone at this year’s ABBA State of the Arts Summit. We discussed the current challenges facing both independent artists and arts organizations in the Bay Area from funding to public safety as well as proposed solutions, accountability and more.

VERSED x BAVC Media: Artist Development Workshop Series | 2022-Present

VERSED is a series of hybrid workshops, hands-on labs, virtual and in-person trainings for creators of all ages and skill levels to spark and sustain careers in the media arts on a free or below-market basis. VERSED is made possible through generous funding by the National Endowment for the Arts. As the Program Director of VERSED, I have designed the workshop themes (from an audio series to one about the ins-and-outs of film production), commissioned the teaching artists, informed the curriculum, collaborated with my team to craft and collect survey data, and cultivate, develop and retain our audience.

I am proud of how this series continues to generate an engaged community of learners and media makers, eager to show up and participate. With every year, I am refining the details of our offerings to make sure they are as accessible, high quality and dynamic as possible. I look forward to re-starting the program again in 2024.

SF Urban Film Fest Spring 2022 | Screening + Panel

I was invited to moderate a post-screening panel at the Ninth Street Independent Film Center in SOMA during SF Urban Film Fest’s 2022 “Urban Futures” in a session called “Through The Lens: Realizing Identity & Needs Through Filmmaking.” The local Bay Area filmmakers on the panel all grapple with what it means to be artists as displacement, surveillance, violence, the pandemic, and economic disruption wreak havoc on their communities. They follow a long lineage of local media makers leveraging film as a collaborative process to engage their communities, by connecting personal emotional truths to immediate social priorities and needs.

In the recorded discussion (which you can watch below), we explored how media makers are experimenting with and pushing the boundaries of filmmaking by redefining the meaning of success, away from the commercial-driven goal of building mass audiences and toward community-driven self-identification and inclusion.

Films:
1. Dedicated to Those Who (USA, 2021, 14 min) Directed by Jules Retzlaff
2. Rent Check (USA, 2020, 9 min) Directed by Jules Retzlaff, Mike Evans Jr
3. Blackness is Everything (USA, 2021, 4 min) Directed by Alba Roland Mejia

Panelists:
Donté Clark | Poet
Jules Retzclaff | Filmmaker
Mike Evans Jr | Comedian, Writer, Filmmaker

Moderator:
Isa Nakazawa, Director of Marketing and Communications at BAVC Media

CiNEOLA Presents: A Conversation between Melissa Liebenthal x Isa Nakazawa

I was hired by Daniel Diaz of CiNEOLA to interview the brilliant filmmaker Melisa Liebenthal on her short film ‘Constanza’. CiNEOLA is a platform for Latin American stories, connecting audiences with diverse representations of Latinoamérica on film.

Constanza, a housemaid of meticulous and almost obsessive gestures, works at Irene’s house, a 65 year old woman in a wheelchair. A snapshot of a meeting between two lonely people. In the conversation (see above), Melisa and I explore themes of loneliness, domestic work, gendered labor and ambivalence.

Town Talks with BAVC Media

I produce a series of virtual community conversations called Town Talks at my current job, BAVC Media. Town Talks is a virtual kickback, convening Bay Area mediamakers to mingle, connect, talk shop and tell stories of creative struggle and triumph. We explore themes with guest artists like episodic storytelling, building your crew, recruiting on-screen talent, telling authentic stories and the nitty gritty of fundraising and distribution. In an intimate series of community conversation, we hope to host an intentional and inclusive space for creatives to break bread and exchange ideas. 

The first ever Town Talks took place on Wednesday, June 24th, 2020 with special guest panelists: Josh Healey and Reyna Amaya (The North Pole), Morgan Mathews and Gene Finley (Bit.) and Florencia Manovil (Dyke Central). In this episode, we explored the expansive world of web series.

The second Town Talks was recorded on Tuesday, October 13th, 2020. This community conversation was co-presented by CiNEOLA on expanded cinema, participatory storytelling, interactivity and questions of memory and belonging with filmmakers Rodrigo Reyes and Miguel Novelo

Fellowships

I am a lifelong student committed to learning, honing my skills and cultivating a diverse network of peers and teachers to stay sharp, accountable and supported for a sustainable and informed practice. Here are a few of the professional development opportunities and fellowships that have shaped me and provided necessary space, resources, tools and community to deepen and energize my work.

NALAC Leadership Institute 2023 | San Antonio, Texas

In the summer of 2023, I was selected to be a NALAC Leadership Institute Fellow among an exceptional pool of candidates from across the country - each of us representing the diversity and dynamism of Latinx arts leadership. The NALAC Leadership Institute (NLI) is an intensive weeklong professional development program for artists, arts administrators, and cultural workers. The Institute brings emerging and established artists and arts administrators together from across the U.S. and Puerto Rico for training in nonprofit arts management and leadership development.

A reflection from my experience: I believe so deeply in the transformative potential of these intergenerational exchanges where we transmit our non-renewable resources (h/t profe Tomás Ybarra-Frausto) including our longings, our language(s), our poems, songs, cuentos and hard-earned learnings.

Mutual recognition breaks the trance of loneliness and isolation we so often feel as practitioners of color in our respective fields. I was reminded of the importance of gathering, of taking real time to center our relationships as a vital resource at the heart of our purpose. Sometimes we get lost in a culture of urgency and forget to slow down and nurture ourselves and each other.

The work of togetherness is not just about easy belonging, it requires rolling up our sleeves to (lovingly) disagree, debate and unmask. It is about sitting in the discomfort and working through it. I believe this collective effort is necessary to puncture through our adult armor and build the durable bonds of solidarity and terms of engagement necessary to enrich and deepen our practice as artists, as producers, and as complex and fluid beings.

The world demands we mobilize our trickster mythologies, our stealthy secrets. I am returning back to the Bay Area re-energized and re-committed to building programs and making art that reflects the juicy, beautiful, complicated, wondrous beauty and possibility I encountered in these 29 Latine artists from Kansas to San Juan.

As Celia Álvarez Muñoz imparted to us in her keynote address, "follow your burning desires and you'll always find a way."

Gracias #NALAC and to all of the generaciones of #Nalaqueros then and now, I am eternally grateful #Seguimos